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Does Research In Motion Pass Buffett's Test?

Here's one of Buffett's favorite metrics for evaluating companies.

We'd all like to invest like the legendary Warren Buffett, turning thousands into millions or more. Buffett analyzes companies by calculating return on invested capital (ROIC) to help determine whether a company has an economic moat -- the ability to earn returns on its money above that money's cost.

ROIC is perhaps the most important metric in value investing. By determining a company's ROIC, you can see how well it's using the cash you entrust to it and whether it's actually creating value for you. Simply, ROIC divides a company's operating profit by how much investment it took to get that profit. The formula:

This one-size-fits-all calculation cuts out many of the legal accounting tricks, such as excessive debt, that managers use to boost earnings numbers, and it provides you with an apples-to-apples way to evaluate businesses, even across industries. The higher the ROIC, the more efficiently the company uses capital.

Ultimately, we're looking for companies that can invest their money at rates that are higher than the cost of capital, which for most businesses is between 8% and 12%. We prefer to see ROIC above 12% at a minimum, along with a history of increasing returns, or at least steady returns, which indicate some durability to the company's economic moat.

Let's look at Research In Motion(Nasdaq: RIMM) and three of its industry peers, to see how efficiently they use cash. Here are the ROIC figures for each company over a few periods.

Company

TTM

1 Year Ago

3 Years Ago

5 Years Ago

Research In Motion

44.6%

47.4%

47.3%

32.1%

Garmin(Nasdaq: GRMN)

25.6%*

44.1%

40.6%

34.3%

Ericsson Telephone(Nasdaq: ERIC)

17.7%

14.1%

12.9%

28.3%

Apple(Nasdaq: AAPL)

46.9%

49.3%

278.5%

124.7%

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.*Because GRMN did not report an effective tax rate for TTM, we used its 23% effective tax rate from last year.

Research In Motion's returns on invested capital have grown substantially from five years ago, suggesting that its competitive position has improved. However, that assessment is belied by the fact that Apple and Android-based phones are encroaching on its territory. The other listed companies have shown declines in their returns over the same period, although they're still at very high levels. In the case of Apple, part of that decline is due to the cash it's hoarding on its balance sheet.

Businesses with consistently high ROIC show that they're efficiently using capital. They also have the ability to treat shareholders well, because they can then use their extra cash to pay out dividends to us, buy back shares, or further invest in their franchise. And healthy and growing dividends are something that Warren Buffett has long loved.

So for more successful investments, dig a little deeper than the earnings headlines to find the company's ROIC. If you'd like, you can add these companies to your Watchlist.